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Despite a slightly less active week for lateral hires in the UK, firms continue to grow their European footprint. Baker McKenzie and Fieldfisher added to their Paris and Dusseldorf bases respectively, as national firm Weightmans hired in Manchester and Kirkland & Ellis opened a new office in Boston.

Adding to its 170-strong Paris office, Baker McKenzie has hired Matthieu Grollemund from Dechert to head its corporate practice there. Davin has been tasked with continuing the development of the private equity and capital markets practices.

Baker McKenzie’s Paris managing partner Arnaud Cabanes said: ‘We are very happy to welcome Matthieu Grollemund and his team to the Paris office which now has 26 partners. His arrival is part of the strategy adopted by our office and our Firm to reinforce our corporate practice in Paris as well as in the world’s principal financial centres.’

Fieldfisher has expanded its Dusseldorf intellectual property (IP) base, hiring partner Benjamin Grzimek from IP specialist firm EIP where he was the head of the Dusseldorf office. A patent litigation expert, Grzimek specialises in enforcement campaigns and cross border work in the US and UK, in particular in the telecoms and consumer electronics sectors.

Fieldfisher’s Germany managing partner Philipp Plog said: ‘Ben is a superb addition to our IP offering in Germany and we warmly welcome him to the firm. His cross-border expertise will further bolster our strong international offering. Our German offices have had a strong year and we are looking at continuing to invest in key lateral hires.’

In the US, Kirkland & Ellis announced this week they are opening an office in Boston. This would be Kirkland’s thirteenth office worldwide, and its eighth US base. Kirkland partners Armand Della Monica, Neal Reenan and Ian Bushner will relocate to Boston to join in launching the office.

Kirkland’s chairman of the global management committee Jeffrey Hammes said: ‘Kirkland has strong ties to the Boston community, and we have been fortunate to develop longstanding client relationships in the city. Our new office is a natural evolution for our firm that will help us to provide even better service to Boston-based clients as we continue to grow, and we are very excited to be here.’

Elsewhere, national firm Weightmans has hired Richard Bate as a partner in Manchester to head up its wills, tax, trusts and probate team. Bate was head of private client at Brabners in Manchester, specialising in estate planning, focusing on wills, trust creation and administration, power of attorney and probate work.